Day 12

Today was the day we leave this amazing place. Our flight leaves soon and we are all packed up. We walked to the end of the boardwalk and got into our car. We dreadfully pack our stuff into the car and drove off to the airport. We looked out of the window looking at the perfectly blue water while wishing we could swim in it again. We got to the airport and returned our rental car and walked to our gate. We board the plane within 15 minutes of us arriving and take our seats. Elijah, Grey, and Ryan all fell asleep on the way back while Nathan and Parker were listening music which might have kept them awake because it was pretty loud. We get back home to the states and we wait for our bags to get back to us and we all say goodbye and part our separate ways.

Museum Day day 10

History
Today Elijah, Nathan, and Parker all woke up extremely tired, but still decided to eat breakfast at Cafe Verde. It was another very good but basic breakfast for all of us, Today we decided to visit the Tiki Theater. It is called Tiki Village Theater and they do traditional dances and give a story of how Tahiti has changed throughout the past. Before that, we start with dinner, a buffet set out with a lot of variety. They have traditional French Polynesian food. Fruits like pineapple, lemons, and other local fruits. They also had a wide spread with shrimp and crab legs, and even hard boiled eggs. Once we had picked out what we wanted and took our plates to the tables. The lights came on and the actors took their places. Soon enough music was playing and we were watching traditional dances including fires and colorful outfits. It was very aesthetically pleasing. They clearly knew what they were doing and we all left entertained. I would go back and see more of the Tiki Village if I ever came back to Tahiti and if you ever find yourself here you should definitely visit it too. That was all we did today, it is day 10 and we are not looking forward to leaving this beautiful place.

Day 11

Today we are going hiking in the Moorea Mountains that over look the ocean. The hike went through dense forests and we saw many animals that we rarely see in America. Salamanders and other animals running, slithering and flying on and through the trees. There were plants everywhere and the green seemed to just keep on going. Our guides name was Manua. He has lived on the island all his life and knows the trails and spots like its the back of his hand. We started the journey. The higher we got the harder it was to breathe, but the view was amazing. You could see everything, our hotel, the waves breaking on the coast, and most of all the bright blue that surrounded the whole island and had no end no matter where you looked. We had gathered fruit and brought food to the top of the mountain.  This was our last actual day in Tahiti and we would all miss it. We're going to miss the view, the food, the culture, and the different experiences we've had throughout the trip. After just chilling on the top of the mountain for a few and eating our lunch we began to come down. The last step was to go home and begin to pack up all of our stuff. Tomorrow we will be heading home. Tahiti has been amazing and we would love to come again.

Tahiti Day 9

Culture

I can't believe this trip will be over in a couple of days. All five of us have had an excellent time exploring this wonderful country of Tahiti. Since we've been doing a lot for the past 9 days we decided that today would be a very quiet and relaxing day. We'd done a lot of extreme events in the past week or so, so we thought that it would be nice to just walk through the City of Papeete and explore the shops, markets, food, and more. When all of us were walking through the town, we started to realize how healthy the people and the food was here. All of the markets were filled with fresh fruits, vegetables, and other fresh and healthy foods. In America we have Food Lion, Kroger, and Costco. In Tahiti there aren't many franchise stores, it's just multiple markets within the City. The stuff that America sells are artificial and unhealthy, most of the foods that are sold in Tahitian markets are freshly grown. You don't see Twinkies and Pop Tarts being sold here in these markets, and that's why the people also look more fit and in shape. The Tahitian natives as a whole look more fit than people in America, that was an interesting observation that we took note of while we were here. It was a very quiet day and it was filled with culture. We stayed out there for a few hours and just went back to the hotel and watched TV, hung out, and called it a day.

Day 8

Culture
We have been here 8 days. Today our plan is to have a good time and we might go to a club to to hear some of the music that the locals listen to here. We are very interested in seeing the traditions of the people on the island. One thing the five of us wanted to see coming into the club was how it's different than clubs in the United States. They have all new foods here and a completely different way of living and celebrating, but it is enjoyable. We just need to find out where to go to experience these things. All day we have been walking through the town seeing the shops and the markets and what new things we could find in them. We found necklaces and weapons created by the locals. We also saw clothing that had been hand made as well as new things such as their ice cream. We stopped in the ice cream shop and decided we couldn't go to Tahiti without trying the ice cream. It was surprisingly different. It had been freshly made and was way better than that processed ice cream that we have had back in the States. It seems as if everything food wise was better this way. Then it was time to go to the club. We decided to go to Paradise Night Club. It had good ratings and was free to get in. You only had to pay for food. When we arrived we had a nice dinner and the music was great. We partied and had a lot of fun. It was so tiring but introduced us to the Tahitian culture. We headed back to the hotel at 2 a.m. and fell asleep. Until tomorrow Tahiti!

Tahiti: Day 7

Sports:
Today is going to be an extremely fun day, we're doing sports!! Now these are not ordinary sports like soccer, football, and basketball that we play in the United States, these are A LOT different. In a couple of hours, we will be playing multiple Tahitian sports including Javelin throwing, fruit carrier races, and coconut tree climbing. It seems extremely fun and we're already getting hyped up. Eli started to talk trash and say he's the fastest but I guess we'll see. The first sport we headed to the beach for coconut tree climbing. By the look of the tree it didn't seem as if any of us would make it. But slowly and slowly we inched up the tree. One of the locals showed us up though. He walked over and was up that tree and back down in the same amount of time that it took us to get half way up. We figured we would just leave it to them and moved on. The next sport was Javelin throwing. We had seen this back in the states on the Olympics and other Track and Field events, but none of us have ever tried this ever before. When we lifted the pole it was heavier than we thought. The locals were throwing it a fair distance but when we stepped up the game changed. Grey was confident he could throw the javelin farther than all of us and went first. He took the green pole and ran up to the line. As he released it went up and came straight down sticking into the ground. We all then began to try over and over not trying to beat the locals, but to try to beat ourselves. At the end we had all set new records for ourselves but we were no where close to the Native Tahitians. They were so good! The last sport we wanted to do was fruit racing. The way you did this was you had to pick up as many fruits as you could each being worth a certain amount of points. you had to run down pick up as much fruit as fast as you could and then run it back to then start. Let's just say that fruit-carrier racing isn't our sport. Today was a fun day and turned out to be very challenging, but it was a great experience.

Day 6 Tahiti

It's only our 6h day in Tahiti and this has by far been the best experience of our lives. Today could be one of the most exciting days of the whole trip, we are going zip lining! Now this isn't like a zip line in your best friends back yard, this is about 100 feet in the air above all of the beautiful trees and clear, blue water. It's going to be an amazing experience. Before we do all of that we of course need to eat. We've decided to continue our little daily routine of stopping at "Cafe Verde" to get our excellent breakfast. After we got our breakfast at the local cafe, we went back to the hotel to change and get ready to go zip lining. Once we got all of the belongings that we needed for the zip lining trip, we headed out. We got to the location, and it was amazing. We got high in the air looking at the spectacular views of this beautiful country.I'd never seen something this beautiful in my life, this is totally different than the US. It has a lot more trees than you would expect and the animal species are very different than they are in the US. While we were zip lining, we could see a lot of greenery ad clearer water than you would see in the United States. You could see the beautiful land stretch for miles I wouldn't trade this trip for the world and it hasn't even been a week yet. We were so tired that once we left the zip lining thing, we hit the bed and were slumped. I was even asleep in the car. It was a tiring day, but all of the exhaustion was worth it, because these are experiences that last a lifetime.

Day 5 Tahiti

Technology
We were all exhausted, its  been almost a week now and we have done some really fun activities. We all have been having a good time enjoying our stay but today planned on having a day to rest. We got way too anxious to just stay in the hotel all day, so we decided to walk around Papeete. We didn't just walk around Papeete, we used an app called "Tahiti Tourisme" made specifically for Tahiti. It's basically a mobile tour guide, as you walk around it gives you different places and landmarks that you can go to in Tahiti. It's really nice, so we used that to walk around and go to various places in Papeete. We stayed out there for about an hour and then decided to go back to the hotel and sleep even more. Parker and Grey went on the porch with their eno's and disappeared for a couple hours snoozing away immediately after we got back. The rest of us were inside all over the place, the couch, the floor, and the bed. The night was upon us and we had all woke up for dinner. It was a very on and off day, but in Tahiti it's always great.

Day 4

Ecosystems
Its been 3 days in Tahiti and we are all already wanting to stay extra long. Today we are going to an aquarium to feed the sharks and the stingrays. It should be super fun and nerve racking because Parker and Eli don't like being that close to live animals. Before we get to all that, we need breakfast. We headed to"Cafe Verde" today and get a good breakfast. We headed out to the aquarium and were briefed on what to do. Don't put your hands near the stingrays barb, don't put your hands near the sharks mouth, don't jump on or grab the aquatic life. Then we headed to the water, carrying fish and other food. The sharks started gathering around knowing what was coming. FOOD! The sharks circled us as if we were stranded out on the ocean. The stingrays flapping there bodies and moving through the water swiftly. The sharks resembled missiles just gliding through the water calmly. WE dropped the food in the water and it was like a shark magnet they all turned and shot at us and as we retreated the stingrays came closer too. Parker would rather prefer the stingrays because you can see them a lot easier they look like a brown, silver, or black spot just slowly moving around. We hung out at the aquarium all day and just looked at all the fish of Tahiti. Some we had never seen before, we were all struck with wonder. After we had used all our energy we went back to the house and rested tomorrow is going to be a fun one. Were going ZIP-LINING!

Tahiti Day 3

Natural Environment
It's 9:00 a.m. and Grey and I woke up in our hammocks. We went inside and found the other three just hanging out and talking. The 5 of us talked for a little bit and got hungry so we decided to get breakfast. Once everyone was dressed and ready to go, we decided to get breakfast from a nice, little cafe called "Cafe Verde". All of the meals we've had in Tahiti so far have been really good, and nothing too special that I could be uncomfortable with. After we enjoyed our meal we went and enjoyed ourselves at the beach. We went gathered our belongings at around 11:30 a.m. and headed out. It was a very relaxing day and we had an excellent time. The water was clear and the sand was soft.  It was a pretty hot day, around 85 degrees so it felt really good to jump in the water. After multiple hours at the beach, all of us were still recovering from jet lag. I would love to always go to this beach. It is less crowded and cleaner than beaches in America.  The sand is very white and the water is so clear. We love it here in Tahiti. We headed up and took a walk just having fun and exploring. For lunch we ate more fruit and headed back to the house. We bumped music and just relaxed through the night before falling asleep again to the sound of waves. It was a good day and we had a lot of fun, can't wait for tomorrow!